


into the dark(room)

by jasonsbarmitzvah (jemscarter)



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: M/M, some angst and some fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 09:07:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13567338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jemscarter/pseuds/jasonsbarmitzvah
Summary: Whizzer gets home late from work, leading to an argument with Marvin, who later tries to make it up to him (or: Marvin and Whizzer adjust to living together).





	into the dark(room)

**Author's Note:**

> This is set sometime between the end of In Trousers and the beginning of Act One, when Marvin and Whizzer have just moved in together. 
> 
> Also, sorry if the photography jargon is a bit off, I know a bit about film photography, but it was a while ago so I may have messed up a bit. And I'm not super confident with writing Act One Marvin and Whizzer yet, so if anyone has feedback on if they sound in character or not it would be greatly appreciated :)

As Whizzer entered the apartment after a long day of work, all he could think about was taking a long shower and collapsing into bed.  Marvin however had other ideas.

“Where the hell have you been?” Marvin exclaimed, jumping up from his position on the couch where he had apparently been awaiting Whizzer’s arrival.

“Work, you know that thing people do so they can make money and try to have nice things,” Whizzer replied dryly as he set down his bag and took off his coat.

“It’s nearly 9 o’clock,” Marvin replied.

“And your point is?”

“You said you were coming home right after work today.”

“Which I did,” Whizzer retorted.

Marvin sat back on the couch and gestured for Whizzer to join him, “You’re usually home sooner.”

Whizzer didn’t move, “Yeah well I spent all weekend moving out of my apartment so I had a lot to catch up on.”

“I thought you’d be home to make dinner,” Marvin said petulantly.

“Look Marv I’ve had an obnoxiously long day so if you’re trying to pick a fight forget it. And make your own damn dinner.”

Marvin stood up and moved towards Whizzer, his arms out to wrap around Whizzer’s waist, “No fight just—what the hell is that smell?”

“Chemicals,” Whizzer answered, ducking away from Marvin’s embrace, “You know the kind I use to develop the pictures I take for the clients who pay me.”

Marvin moved so he was blocking Whizzer’s path, “Well don’t they have something to get rid of that stench?”

“It’s called a shower, which is where I was headed before you so rudely interrupted me.”

“You never answered my question.”

Whizzer sighed, “What question Marvin?”

“Why are you home so late?”

“Because I got stuck in the darkroom all night,” Whizzer snapped, his annoyance at Marvin and his incredibly long day and _Marvin_ keeping him from showering and getting in bed finally boiling over, “The Jacobsons were an hour late for their appointment and the Samuels family portraits had a large sun streak through them for who knows what reason so I had to block and dodge every photo just to even out the coloring, not to mention the general tweaking I usually do on my photos, plus I had to print a bunch of different sizes and copies for all their relatives who love them and want photos of them hanging around their houses and then I had to deal with the-“

“I get it,” Marvin said, cutting Whizzer’s ranting off.

“I know you think my job is a bullshit fluff gig Marvin, but it actually takes some fucking skill to be a photographer, unlike whatever number crunching you do all day.  A monkey could do that yet you have your fancy house and your nice apartment and your cushy desk downtown and one at home because heaven forbid you have to go back to the office on the weekend because someone urgently needs some inane task done and meanwhile I work my ass off and I’m still stuck screwing assholes like you just to get by.”

With that Whizzer shoved past Marvin and went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him and turning the shower up as high as it would go.

Marvin considered opening the door and screaming back at Whizzer about all the skill his job required, but even he couldn’t think of anything particularly skillful about his job to invalidate Whizzer’s claims, so instead Marvin shut off all the lights and made his way into the bedroom with his newspaper.

Whizzer didn’t come out of the bathroom until Marvin was almost halfway through his newspaper, sitting down on the bed silently and grabbing a magazine to read.

“I’m going to turn the light off,” Marvin said shortly after.

“Do what you want Marvin,” Whizzer replied.

“Whizzer-“

“I’m still mad at you.”

Marvin breathed deeply, tried to contain his annoyance like Mendel kept telling him to, “Why?”

Whizzer stared at Marvin aloofly, “Forget it, you wouldn’t understand.”

Marvin reached around to turn the lamp next to his bed off and laid down in bed, Whizzer following suit shortly after. The two laid for a while facing opposite directions and staring at their respective walls, neither falling asleep or acknowledging the other.

“We could screw,” Marvin finally said.

“Screw you.”

Marvin turned over and threw his arm across Whizzer, cuddling into him.  Whizzer didn’t move but also didn’t move Marvin’s arm, and the two eventually fell asleep.

* * *

  
  
When the weekend came around, Whizzer told Marvin he was “going out somewhere” and that he’d “be back who knows when,” so Marvin figured he had plenty of time to set his plan into motion.  One of the reasons they had liked this apartment was that it had a lot of storage space, including a large walk-in closet in the spare bedroom.  Marvin cleared out the boxes that had accumulated there and set up the stuff he’d bought earlier that day, and then waited for Whizzer to arrive home.

“Marvin, you home?” Whizzer called out that evening as he walked in the door.

“Yeah, in here,” Marvin yelled back from the closet space.

“What are you doing in—oh.”

Whizzer looked around at the newly-converted closet.  Marvin had set up a small table with some trays along one wall, and on the other wall was a smaller table with an enlarger sitting on it.  There was also a red light bulb screwed into the light fixture, and a clothesline hanging along the back of the room.

“I know it’s not everything, the guy at the store said you’d probably have a particular brand of chemicals you like, and he said you’d probably want a sink but, I figured you could just pick up those jugs of water if you needed them, and there’s a fan outside, I wasn’t sure where you’d want it.”

Whizzer gaped, “You set up a darkroom for me?”

“Well, yeah. You said it wasn’t fair that I had a work space at home and you didn’t so, here.”

“Your work space is just a desk, this is-“

“If you don’t like it I’ll return everything,” Marvin said defensively.

Whizzer ripped his eyes away from his new set-up and faced Marvin, “I thought you wanted this to be Jason’s room?”

“He won’t need the closet.”

“Marvin I…“

“Usually it takes a few hours in bed to get you speechless,” Marvin joked and Whizzer hit his arm.

“So you like it?” Marvin asked.

“I _love_ it,” Whizzer replied, wrapping his arms around Marvin’s neck, “Thank you.”

Marvin leaned in and kissed Whizzer deeply in response.

“You know, I don’t think we christened this room yet,” Marvin said and Whizzer chuckled.

“I think we can fix that,” Whizzer grinned and shoved Marvin up against the wall behind him.

Installing a darkroom was definitely one of Marvin’s best ideas yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments/Kudos are greatly appreciated!
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr at jasonsbarmitzvah. I also accept prompts there :)


End file.
